Capitol Aggregates, Inc. v. Walker

448 S.W.2d 830, 1969 Tex. App. LEXIS 2500
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedDecember 17, 1969
Docket11717
StatusPublished
Cited by21 cases

This text of 448 S.W.2d 830 (Capitol Aggregates, Inc. v. Walker) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Capitol Aggregates, Inc. v. Walker, 448 S.W.2d 830, 1969 Tex. App. LEXIS 2500 (Tex. Ct. App. 1969).

Opinion

HUGHES, Justice.

Appellant, Capitol Aggregates, Inc., obtained a money judgment against appellee, Clyde Walker, in the court below, Cause No. 167,482, for the sum of $10,077.27, plus interest and costs, and the judgment being unpaid, appellant caused an execution to issue by the clerk of the court which, pursuant to such judgment, was placed in the hands of T. 0. Lang, Sheriff of Travis County. Sheriff Lang levied this execution, or at least attempted to levy it upon a “mobile trailer home” occupied by Mr. Walker and his family as a home. This suit was brought by Clyde Walker and wife Hazel Walker, against Sheriff Lang and Capitol Aggregates, Inc., to permanently enjoin the levy of execution against the “mobile trailer home,” the Walkers contending it was their homestead and exempt from execution under the Constitution and laws of this State. Trial to the court, without a jury, resulted in a judgment permanently enjoining the parties sued from levying or attempting to levy the execution on and from selling or attempting to sell the “mobile trailer home” of appellees. Only Capitol Aggregates, Inc., has appealed.

The trial court made and filed findings of fact and conclusions of law, those pertinent here being:

“2. Plaintiffs, Hazel Walker and Clyde Walker, sold their home on Fort-view Road in Austin, Texas, sometime in the year 1968, took the proceeds therefrom and made a so-called ‘down payment’ on the purchase price of and did purchase and become the owners of what was frequently shorthandly referred to in the testimony as a ‘trailer home.’
3. The ‘trailer home’ is an enclosed structure containing three bedrooms, one and one-half baths, a living room and a kitchen, and containing such other facilities sufficient to meet the domestic and physical needs of human beings who might abode therein.
4. As originally purchased by the plaintiffs, such structure had affixed to the underside thereof axles to which wheels were attached. By virtue of such attachment, said structure was then ‘mobile’ and ‘movable’ in the sense that, by the application of sufficient force, such as that generated by the power of an ordinary automobile, such structure could be moved from one place to another comparatively more easily than it could be dragged or if the invention of the wheel and axle were not among the devices of our modern technology.
5. At the time of such purchase of such structure, the plaintiffs then owned a leasehold estate in a lot of land situated in what was characterized in the testi *832 mony as a ‘trailer park’ located at 1600-G Barton Springs Road in the City of Austin, Texas. Immediately after such purchase of such structure by the plaintiffs, they caused such structure to be moved to said lot in which they then owned such leasehold estate. There the plaintiffs caused said wheels to be removed from such structure and such structure to be set upon what was referred to in the testimony as ‘cement blocks’ on said lot. Such structure’s gas, water and sewage facilities were connected to the gas, water and sewage systems located under the surface of and being a part of the aforesaid lot of land. The structure’s electrical system was connected to the electrical service furnished as a part of said leasehold estate. By such setting on such blocks, the underside of said structure was held up from the actual surface of the soil of the earth a distance of approximately two feet. Although the plaintiffs did not themselves ‘fasten’ such structure to such blocks or soil, either by hairpin or steel cable embedded in concrete, I take judicial notice of the law of gravity and frictional adhesion and find that such structure was thereupon affixed by the plaintiffs to the lot of land in which they then held the aforesaid leasehold estate and that such structure was then, in all reasonable and practical sense of the .terms, immovable and without mobility except by external application thereto of some great force such as that of a severe hurricane or powerful bulldozer.
6. I find that such affixation to said land by the plaintiffs was with the intention to enhance the usability of said leasehold estate in said land as the plaintiffs’ home so long as the plaintiffs held said estate in said land.
7. I find that, except for some periods of time during which the plaintiff, Clyde Walker, was temporarily separated from Hazel Walker, the plaintiffs in fact have continuously from the time said structure was affixed as aforesaid to and including the date of trial, resided and aboded in such structure upon said land and have used, occupied and enjoyed said land and said structure thereon as a home for themselves and their family.
******
Conclusions of Law:
The plaintiffs’ ownership interest in the aforesaid structure is an interest in a homestead within the meaning of Article 16, Sections 50 and 51, Constitution of the State of Texas, and Articles 3832 and 3833 of the Revised Civil Statutes of Texas, and therefore exempt from forced sale under execution.”

Appellant’s first point is that there was no evidence to support the finding of the trial court that the house trailer (mobile home) was affixed to the land. 1

We do not believe we are required to recite all of the testimony bearing on and sustaining the finding of the court challenged here for the reason that, except perhaps as to the intent of appellees, appellant does not deny the factual findings of the court, but rather questions their legal effect.

Mr. Walker, who had been in the concrete business for many years, testified that the method used in placing his trailer on concrete blocks was the same as used by house movers who move and relocate entire houses. In some areas where hurricanes are common, mobile homes are bolted to the concrete blocks.

On cross examination, Mr. Walker testified:

“Q Mr. Walker, had you been around trailer parks much before you moved into this one ?
A Not a great lot, no, sir. Just saw them and visited in one or two or three.
*833 Q Do you know whether or not it might be a common practice to take wheels off and sell them and buy some more when you need them and then maybe sell those when you want to put the trailer down again and so forth?
A Well, I wouldn’t know about that. That wasn’t the reason we took ours off.
Q Well, you took yours off so that you could sell them, and you did, in fact, get some money for them, didn’t you?
A We got a hundred dollars for them because we never intended to move the trailer. We didn’t need them. We didn’t want them.”

Mr. L. Paul Meadows, Sr., who operated the trailer park where appellees’ mobile home was located, testified:

“Q In the operation of your business there, do you have some people who come and park their mobile homes for a long period of time and some who come for very short periods of time ?

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Bluebook (online)
448 S.W.2d 830, 1969 Tex. App. LEXIS 2500, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/capitol-aggregates-inc-v-walker-texapp-1969.